1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods of dealing and playing blackjack card games.
2. Description of the Prior Art
“Blackjack” (also called “twenty one”) has been and still remains the most popular casino table game ever played.
Players are required to play their hand against the dealer's hand. The game is often referred to as “twenty one” because the object of the game is to acquire a total hand value as close to twenty-one as possible without exceeding twenty-one.
Every card having a rank from two to ten is given a value equal to the number of its rank. “Court” or “face” cards (Jacks, Queens and Kings) have a value of ten. An ace has a value of either one or eleven (depending on which number will allow the player to get as close to twenty-one as possible, without going over and thereby “busting”.
The dealer starts by dealing each player (and himself) two cards from a standard deck of 52 playing cards (having four cards of each of the 13 ranks mentioned in the preceding paragraph, with one card of each of four suits in each rank, the four suits being spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs). One of the two cards initially dealt to the dealer (called the “up card”) is placed face up, and the other card is placed face down. Players may choose to draw additional cards in attempting to acquire a total as close to 21 as possible without “busting” (exceeding 21). A busted hand loses immediately. A starting hand with a total value of 21 (e.g., an ace and a ten) is called a “blackjack”.
While players may stop drawing at any time, the dealer is required to draw until his total is 17 or more. If both the dealer and a player bust, the dealer wins, as the player must draw first and will lose immediately when busting.
Hands that contain an ace and cannot bust (go over 21) on the next card drawn are called “soft”. Other hands are called “hard”. Hands are also referred to by their total point value. E.g., a 6 and a 7 would be a “hard 13”, while a 6 and an ace would be a “soft 17”.
Once a player acquires a hard total of 12. They are in danger of busting if they draw additional cards. Hard 13, 14, 15 and 16 also fall in this category. Hereafter, such hands will be referred to as “bust draws”.
As the dealer only shows one card of his two card starting hand, every player faces a dilemma once they have a bust draw: Should they draw and risk busting or stand and hope that the dealer busts?
FIG. 1 is a chart that shows three different classifications for the possible two-card starting hands in a single deck. In a player's original two cards there are 1,326 possible hands that they can receive in a standard 52 card deck. FIG. 1 shows the number of possible ways there are of receiving each hand. Dividing the number of possible ways by 1,326 and multiplying by 100% gives the average percentage of time you should receive each hand.
FIG. 1 shows bust draw hands to be the most frequent, with an average of 514 hand received per 1326 possibilities or almost 39% of all starting hands received. It is always possible to bust any of these hands with a single draw.
The second most frequent group of hands are the “made hands” with an average of 446 starting hands in the 1326 possibilities or a most 34% of all possible starting hands. These hands include all totals of hard 17 or more and soft hands of 18 or more. With the possible exception of soft 18, all these made hands should stand “as is”. Any draws to these hands will severely weaken the player's chance to win the hand. Thus, their hand is “made”.
The smallest group of starting hands are “free draw” hands, so-called because players can freely draw at least one and sometimes more additional cards without risk of busting. Free draw hands include hard totals of 11 or less and soft totals of 17 or less. These hands average 366 starting hands of the 1,326 possibilities in a single deck; less than 28% of all possible starting hands.
Because players simply stand on “made hands” and fear busting their “bust draws”, most of the fun, action and excitement for players lie in the “free draw” group of hands. The reason is simple. Players can act on these hands every time by freely drawing at least one card. Better yet, one draw has the possibility of turning 88% of these “free draw” hands into “made hands”. This induces all two-card totals of hard 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11.
It also includes all soft hands of 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17. A small card can make the hand, as the ace can be given a value of eleven. A large card cannot bust the hand, as the ace would then be revert to a value of one. Drawing and making these hands and never risking busting can be fun. But players find little joy in continually making tough decisions on their “bust draws”.
These “free draws” offer some profitable “double down” opportunities with the hard totals of 11, 10 and 9. The chance to double your bet and take only one card exists only in free draw hands. Doubling down on made hands and bust draw hands would be pure foolishness.
Another fun feature of free draw hands lies in the chance to turn small free draw hands of 8 or less into better free draw hands such as 10 or 11. Free draw hands are the only group of hands to provide action for the player on every hand.
In the past few years, many side bets have been created based on the first two cards received by the players in blackjack games. While these bets may create a little more amusement for the players, they have no effect on the outcome of the player's hands. The bad starting hands are still bad starting hands. The ever-present “bust draws” are still prevalent. The stress of decisions never diminish, and the dealer's up card still appears ominous more often than not.
While frequent “bust draws” in the first two cards can be very discouraging, there is one thing worse for the player. The dealer receives a blackjack! While “bust draws” occur almost eight times as often, the fear of that dealer's blackjack is always present.
There have been numerous variations of the popular casino card game called “blackjack” or “twenty one” but none that are equivalent to the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,861,041, issued on Aug. 29, 1989 to Daniel A. Jones and James P. Shuttle, discloses adding a progressive jackpot component to a live casino table game. It requires an additional wager by players at the beginning of each hand in an attempt to win all or part of a progressive jackpot created by these wagers. It should be noted that this is an extra bet, and is not a discard fee as in the present invention. Also, this patent is not specifically directed to blackjack games, unlike the present invention. As is the case with discard fees in blackjack, this progressive jackpot feature could never be profitable for the house if the bets were placed after the hands were dealt.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,209, issued on Apr. 18, 1995, to Phillip P. Prerost, discloses a modification to blackjack, in which, after the first two cards are dealt, if the player decides to take a third card, he is given the option of replacing the third card. The player must make a second bet to replace the third card. The present invention is distinguishable, since the optional discard fee must be paid before any cards are dealt, and the player can only discard one of the two original cards.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,660,392, issued on Aug. 26, 1997, to Brian S. Hansen, discloses a method for playing a blackjack type card game, in which the player makes an additional wager, the cards are dealt one at a time, and the player has the option of making an additional wager after each card is dealt. The instant invention is distinguishable, in that it allows a player to discard a card that has been dealt, if a fee is paid in advance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,532, issued on Apr. 28, 1998, to William M. Lafferty, discloses a method of making a side bet during blackjack. The player has the option of betting that the dealer has an ace.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,536, issued on Oct. 20, 1998, to Lea Flasch, discloses a blackjack card game and method of playing a game, in which each player, in turn, is offered the role of banker until a first player accepts.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,897, issued on Nov. 9, 1999, to Howard Francis Grossman, discloses a method of playing blackjack, in which various side bets are allowed to increase the excitement of playing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,984,308, issued on Nov. 16, 1999, to Delores Hermann, discloses a variation of blackjack, allowing an optional bonus bet that the dealer will not exceed the player's point count total.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,293,551, issued on Sep. 25, 2001, to Derek J. Webb, discloses a blackjack card game incorporating two-card 21 wagers. A first card is dealt to a player and a first card is dealt to the dealer. If the player's first card is an ace or 10-value card, the player has the option of betting that his or her two-card total will be 21. If the dealer's first card is an ace or 10-value card, the player has the option of betting that the dealer's two-card total will be 21.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,375,190, issued on Apr. 23, 2002, to Robert William Kocher, discloses a game of blackjack allowing the player to take two extra cards (“double-hit”) or three extra cards (“triple-hit”). The instant invention is distinguishable, in that it allows the players to discard a card.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,394,456, issued on May 28, 2002, to George M. Long, discloses a method of playing a variation of the card game “twenty-one”, in which a player who is dealt a pair may “split” the pair, and be dealt additional cards to form two hands, each of which contains one card from the pair that is split.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,485,020, issued on Nov. 26, 2002, to John Broadnax, discloses a casino card game involving optional variations of blackjack. The game allows a player to replace one of the first two cards dealt. The instant invention is distinguishable, in that it allows one of the first two cards dealt to be replaced only if the player pays a fee in advance, and it does not allow either card to be replaced if at least one of them is an ace. In Broadnax, players are usually required to match their original bet with a second bet. When a player places the second bet, the dealer takes down the original bet, which is forfeited, and replaces the unwanted card with another card. (There is no mention of this forfeit rule in the basic rules, but only under the “EXAMPLES OF OPTION USE” in column 5. The final resolution of the forfeited bet is never fully explained.) Under “REVIEW OF RULES”, Column 6, lines 7 9 state, “6. Pushes—all bets forfeited by the player because he chose to use an option will remain forfeited in the event of a push with the dealer.” The language of claim 8 is almost identical. It could be assumed that the player would also forfeit the first bet if he loses the second bet. If the player wins the second bet, what becomes of the forfeited bet! Apparently it will still be forfeited, for nothing in the patent states otherwise.
When the forfeit rule applies in Broadnax, it appears that the player will always be risking the loss of two bet to win one, if they use the discard option. Since this rule applies to options one, two and four (in column 3) using discard options on any of these three options will create huge losses for the unwise player. Option four offers the player a second chance: When the player draws a bust card, they may replace that card with a second bet to that some bust draw again with an average 30% win chance. If any player exercises these options, how long are they likely to last at the gaming table!
Broadnax's option three (in column 3) allows the player a change to draw a second double down card, but only if the player's first double down hand totals 20 or 21 and the dealer has an ace or face card showing. The only correct double down in option three is hard 11 against an ace or ten card. This chance should be received only about once in 140 hands. Broadnax offers foolish players a quick way to lose their money, if they choose to play these complicated options.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,540,230, issued on Apr. 1, 2003, to Jay S. Walker et al., discloses a method and apparatus for playing a card game such as blackjack, including “bust insurance” and “mortgage” options. The options may be selected after the first two cards are dealt. There is no option for discarding a card, as in the instant invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,877,746, issued on Apr. 12, 2005, to Jerry Herren and Joanie N. Herren, discloses a live or electronically implemented blackjack game, in which players may exchange one or both of the two cards that they are originally dealt, in exchange for a fee that is paid after the cards are dealt. In a first embodiment, the fee is fifty percent of the player's original wager. This gives the players an advantage over the house, which is increased by allowing a player to double down on their lone remaining card, such as a lone ten. These rules can allow a player to gain a 2.71% edge with optimum play, as will be explained. Changing the payouts for blackjack as suggested in Herren's FIG. 3 is not a new ideal with Herren. Even money was paid for blackjacks by the casinos in “face-up” blackjack for many years. Both dealer cards were dealt face up, with the dealer winning all pushes for allowing players to see both cards in dealer's starting hands. There is nothing to stop casinos from paying even money for blackjacks, if players are foolish enough to play such a game. Some casinos have already reduced their blackjack payouts, particularly the 6 to 5 payouts, which has caused the players' winnings to decline.
To summarize, Herren et al. permits the player to exchange one or both of their two starting cards by paying an exchange fee equal to 50% of their original bet. The player may exchange one card only and choose to double down on his one remaining card, or he may exchange both cards but not double down on his new two-card hand. Alternatively, the player may split his original two cards by placing an additional bet. The player may then exchange each new card dealt to each separate hand, paying a fifty percent fee for each exchange. The main objective of the game seems a little unclear. It would seem to be a confusing game to play or deal. A tentative analysis of how the game should be played follows:
If the player chooses to pay a fifty percent fee to exchange one card, then the player's action should increase his chances at winning by at least fifty percent. This would include the five worst player starting hands of hard 16, 15, 14, 13, and 12, in addition to hard 17. The best exchange hand is player's 0-6 versus dealer's 7. Hard 16 would average losing 41.5% against the 7. A lone ten doubling down on an exchange draw would average winning 39.7% or a total gain of 80.7% when paying the fifty percent fee. The net gain is 30.7%, i.e., a win of 30.7 bets per 100 plays of this particular play. The following is a summary of the positive plays:
EXCHANGE HANDPLAYER GAIN10-6 vs. All dealer up cards+0.69%10-5 vs. All up cards+0.58%10-4 vs. Dealer 9 or less+0.47%10-3 vs. 9 or less+0.42%10-2 vs. 8 or less+0.35%10-7 vs. All up cards+0.20%except 10, 9 and 7TOTAL GAIN+2.71%The player should exchange the smaller card and always double down on the lone ten against dealer's nine or less. The player should only use the exchange fee for the starting hands listed above, to gain a 2.71% edge over the house. For other starting hands the 50% fee is mildly excessive to extremely excessive, and should never be used.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2003/0104851, published on Jun. 5, 2003, to Naftali Merari, discloses an apparatus and method of playing twenty one, in which a player may discard the cards that are initially dealt, which are then replaced with new cards. Again, the instant invention is distinguishable, in that it allows one of the first two cards dealt to be replaced only if the player pays a fee in advance, and it does not allow either card to be replaced if at least one of them is an ace.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2003/0139211, published on Jul. 24, 2003, to Moe Mestashar, discloses a “no bust” 21 or blackjack game, in which a player has an option of having the dealer replace a draw card that causes the player's hand to “bust” by exceeding 21 points. (A “draw card” is a card that is drawn by the player after the first two cards are dealt.) The instant invention is distinguishable, in that it allows one of the cards that are initially dealt to be replaced.
European Patent Application Publication No. 0 338 644, published on Oct. 25, 1989, inventors James Patrick Suttle and Daniel Aloysius Jones, discloses an apparatus for progressive jackpot gaming, that may be used with games such as twenty one or poker.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is soon to describe the instant invention as claimed.